http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/world/asia/19pstan.html?hp
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Thirteen people have been killed and several wounded in an attack Thursday suspected to have been carried out by an American drone against the camp of a local Taliban commander in South Waziristan, a Pakistani intelligence official based in the area said.
The drone fired a total of four missiles into a compound in the village of Raghzai near Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, which was being used as a base by the Taliban commander Wali Mohammed, local residents and officials said.
Mr. Mohammed, who is better known by his nom de guerre, Malang Wazir, was not in the compound and survived the attack, a fighter loyal to Mr. Mohammed said in a telephone interview. The intelligence official, who like the fighter, spoke on condition of anonymity, said a nephew of Mr. Mohammed died in the attack.
According to residents in the area, one person died in an initial double missile strike on the compound. When people rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded, two more missiles struck. Eight more people were killed in the second strike, the residents said. The intelligence official said that four additional people had died.
There have been at least 18 drone attacks in Pakistan so far this year, according to local residents and Pakistani officials, as compared with 36 last year. The missile-carrying, remotely piloted aircraft are operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, which has a standard policy of not commenting on whether an attack took place. A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment on the latest attack.
Mr. Mohammed, the commander who survived Thursday’s attack, was a member of the local Taliban consultative body that wields de facto control over the town of Wana, under the city’s top Taliban commander, Molvi Nazir.
In recent months, as the strikes against the Taliban in the area have intensified, Mr. Nazir and his fighters entered into a mutual security agreement with Baitullah Mehsud, the powerful Taliban commander who controls much of South Waziristan, local residents said. Mr. Mehsud is responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and is a prominent target in the Pakistani government’s widening offensive against Taliban militants in the country.
The drones had been flying over the Wana area since Wednesday, and were in the air at the time of the attack, local residents said. As a result, the Taliban had mostly vacated their bases and training camps, leaving only a few people in the compound when the strike occurred.
A Pakistani government official reached in Wana said Thursday that the Taliban had cordoned off the area where the strike occurred, and that they were still recovering dead bodies from the debris.
There has been a lull in drone attacks over the past month, as the Pakistani government has stepped up its fighting in the Swat Valley and other areas, and begun its own aerial strikes in South Waziristan. The drone attacks, which often kill civilians, are deeply unpopular among the local population.
A succession of peace deals over the years has allowed Mr. Mehsud and his supporters to dig themselves securely into some of the most rugged terrain in the country. Analysts said that they believed this latest attack could bring Mr. Nazir closer to Mr. Mehsud, which would make it more difficult for the military to defeat them.
Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York.
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